How easy is it to change your sleeping patterns?

Heh, I can only really sleep around 2/3/4am and wake up around 11am. I am not a morning person at all, and it'll be hell when I need to switch to a 9-5 routine.
 
Very difficult. :) Maybe you are just over exhausted from work - your brain just tends to go overtime and you start thinking about loads of stuff and can't sleep - happens to me!

Sunday night is obviously the worst for me. Friday night, I end up sleeping at about 3am and wake up Saturday at about 1pm. So to ensure I wake up on time on a Monday, I make sure that I wake up early on Sunday, so that I can sleep early that night. :D Then the week just flows.

Don't drink any caffeine after work. I'm not a morning person and start at 9am but come about 10am - I'm OK. There's also no point trying to force yourself to sleep if you cannot sleep.
 
PhillyDee said:
<-- shift worker. Its easy!

I do days nightshifts and days off in 7 days.
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Shift worker as well. Not easy at all, I just get on with it and feel tiered most of the time.

3hrs sleep in the past 39hrs and I can't sleep, wtf. I hate being overtiered. Feel sleepy, you want to sleep. But at the same time feel pumped.
 
Insomnia sufferer here. This is my second night without sleep.

I've often worked 8 or 9 hour days on no sleep. That's utterly draining. I'd get home, and still not sleep though.

I'm not a morning person, and sometimes I don't even like natural light. It hurts my eyes. Hard to explain, but I'm sure you know those days when it's not sunny, but it's really bright outside?

Going to see a doctor tomorrow, well, today. See what they say. Apparently I barely slept as a child either, so this is nothing recent. I've tried reading, and I often get through a good one hundred pages or so before giving up on sleep. I don't drink tea, and only very rarely have a coffee when I go to the cinema with a friend. I've tried lavender spray on my pillows. A warm bath before bed. Nothing works.
 
Very hard, but I have just changed from waking up at 8 to 6 and do it every other week. It's a case of going to bed earlier, saying that if you do go to bed at the same time and have the same amount of sleep your body should adjust.
 
Sleeping / waking patterns are controlled by hormones - cortisol wakes us up in the morning, activated by blue light hitting our retina, and melatonin relaxes us ready for sleep, its stimulated by darkness.

Modern lifestyle and stress can dampen that response, blue light from computer screens constantly hit our eyes during the evening, and limited exposure to sunlight during the day, means our response/cycles can become dulled or even stop, the body does not know when the day or the night starts.

It can become more pronounced during the winter months because its so dark in the mornings. Good tip would be to get a sun lamp or a sunlight alarm clock that gives your eyes a strong dose of sun-like-light in the mornings. Then in the evenings limit your exposure to computer screen light, TV, and even strong house lighting for at least 1 hour before bed. I suggest a hobby like learning to play an instrument, writing, reading, learning a new language, or going for a walk somewhere quiet, avoid intense exercise before bed, aim to start exercising in the mornings as your waking energy levels improve.

When your sleeping pattern starts to improve you can slowly adjust your alarm clock to wake you up earlier, but do not force yourself to wake up if you feel shattered. Melatonin can also help if your sleep pattern gets out of whack for an early night. If you have a serious problem with insomnia, you should perhaps look into supplementing with Theanine, GABA OR Z12 - an expensive supplement sold by T-Nation.

Quick Edit - Magnesium supplements, and food rich in Mg, as you are probably deficient in Magnesium (most people are) so pop a ZMA before bed for improved relaxation before and during rest times.
 
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mistercrabb said:
Now, annoyingly, I can't seem to get to sleep until some point between midnight and 1AM. This is not good for me, I seem to need loads of sleep and it makes me really tired at work (it might just be that I'm really bored - I can't tell)
That part where I'm trying to get to sleep seems to be a needless waste of 1-2 hours of my life every day.

Is there an easy way to change my sleep pattern so I go to sleep straight away when I go to bed at 10PM (this is when the rest of my family go to bed) and then wake up at 6AM? 8 hours sleep and an early start.
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Is your job physically active? Perhaps you just aren't ready for sleep, joining a gym or just going for a run before dinner may help.

If you just want to tweak your body clock fasting should help, don't eat anything after lunch, go to bed, then get up at the right time (6am) and eat a big meal (breakfast) straight away. (you just do this once btw, not every day).
 
Thanks for the replies everyone!

Telescopi said:
Is your job physically active? Perhaps you just aren't ready for sleep, joining a gym or just going for a run before dinner may help.

If you just want to tweak your body clock fasting should help, don't eat anything after lunch, go to bed, then get up at the right time (6am) and eat a big meal (breakfast) straight away. (you just do this once btw, not every day).
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I've heard fasting to reset the body clock before, I might give it a go.
It's a desk job, so not very active. I did join the gym a little while ago, the problem is that I can't get to the gym until 7ish, I get home again around 9 which is too late, I won't be able to get to sleep because I was exercising so recently.

smit101 said:
You're getting loads of sleep op'r, you feel tired at work because you're bored! I reckon you need a more stimulating job, here's a couple of examples of jobs which you may find less boring than your current one.
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Lol, made me laugh at work :)

Skyfall said:
Its easy, just go to sleep when you want and get up when you need to. Works for me anyway.
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My brain doesn't 'want' to sleep, that's the problem. I rarely go to bed later than 11, I'll still be awake by midnight though.

Also, to everyone telling me to just set an early alarm, I tried that last night. I set my alarm to 6AM. It's been 7:30 for years and my brain did not like the change.
I woke up twice dreaming the alarm had gone off, and then at 6AM I have a vague memory of crossing the room, switching off the alarm and getting back into bed - without waking up :/

I think I'll leave the alarm set to 6AM, and see if I can train myself to go to sleep better at night. Avoiding technology might be the key I think :P
 
Yeah I have that problem (and I live a fairly active lifestyle) my brain just won't "switch off" before 2-3am so even if I went to bed at 11pm I'd still lie there wide awake until around 2-3am infact going to bed early if anything makes it worse as my brain starts finding itself things to keep it occupied I get loads of thoughts going around in my head and its even harder to sleep than if I keep doing stuff that keeps me occupied until I feel ready to sleep.

Fortunatly so far my job has been fairly flexible hours wise so most days I can delay getting up til 10-11am, the days I actually have to get up at 7-8am leaves me feeling horrid for most of the day.
 
I have my alarm go off at 06:30 everyday, including weekends.

Obviously I wake at those times on a week day for work, but on the weekend it will wake me up. But then I will simply snooze the bugger for 30 mins to further my sleep.

Now, you are probably thinking '7am!! ON A WEEKEND!'. Well, yes...

I wake at 7, feeling refreshed from that extra bit of sleep and guess what, I have a whole day to do stuff, not 5 hours of daylight due to waking at 1pm, but a whole 12 hours if no more of time to spend doing anything I planned out.

Sure, some weekends you just stay in bed until the afternoon, but once in a while, why not?

My point is, I have done this for a year now, as I was the same, all be it, shattered in the afternoons, followed by a nap after dinner then I would be wide awake until 2am!!

But after being strict with my self, as in no naps in the afternoons, awake in the morning. Eventually my body has gotten used to having 8-6 hours sleep and I have energy!

Plus, the correct diet helps as well.

Oh, and I never get tired at work anymore :D Used to hate almost falling asleep as my desk, but now I couldn't if I tried.
 
I work shifts and find swapping from nights to days and back again tough sometimes. Most of the time it's a case of making myself so tired that I need to go to bed the first night and that normally sorts my sleeping pattern.

As Telescopi says, perhaps you should take up some form of exercise in the evenings. If the gym or running don't appeal, then why not try a football/rugby/swim team or something like British Military Fitness? Anything you enjoy basically.
 
mistercrabb said:
I did join the gym a little while ago, the problem is that I can't get to the gym until 7ish, I get home again around 9 which is too late, I won't be able to get to sleep because I was exercising so recently.
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I don't mean to be rude but that does sound a lot like an excuse.
 
Jay794 said:
Try going to bed earlier, or whiskey, I work 6am till 6pm, and whiskey helps me sleep
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I'd be very careful about using something as addictive as alcohol as a crutch for helping you do anything.

I realise that you're not advocating getting wildly drunk every night but nonetheless I'd be reluctant to use whiskey in such a way. I'd hate to become so reliant on it that I couldn't sleep if I didn't have my drink.
 
I'm in no way reliant/addicted to it. I just find that if i'm nervous e.g. night before an interview JD is a great way to calm my nervous and clear my head. I would never say "down a bottle before bedtime"

I also get panic attacks so again, whiskey helps
 
Telescopi said:
I don't mean to be rude but that does sound a lot like an excuse.
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Well, I'm not avoiding the gym, I've been going 3 times a week, and part of the reason of wanting to get up early is so I can get to the gym before work.
What i was saying is that when I go to the gym in the evening, it messes up my sleep that night and I feel really bad the next day...
 
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